# Palazzo Ducale

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Canonical page: https://mytuur.com/en/city/venice/spot/palazzo-ducale/

Content updated: 2026-06-22

Palazzo Ducale rises beside St Mark’s Square, between the Piazzetta and the waters of St Mark’s Basin in Venice. Its Venetian Gothic arcades rest on Istrian stone and herringbone brick paving. The oldest surviving wing faces the lagoon, with fourteenth-century sculptures at its corners and carved capitals above the ground-floor arcade. Two mid-sixteenth-century well-heads stand in the courtyard beside the former Doge’s chapel, St Mark’s Basilica.

Construction began around 810, when Doge Agnello Participazio moved Venice’s government from Malamocco towards Rialto. Fires repeatedly reshaped the building. After the 1340 expansion, the palace gained its lagoon-facing Gothic wing, then its Piazzetta wing and open loggias under Doge Francesco Foscari. The Porta della Carta connects those sections. Renaissance details entered after the 1483 fire, while later rebuilding preserved the Gothic style despite Andrea Palladio’s neoclassical proposals.

The former residence held council chambers, reception halls, government rooms and apartments rebuilt after 1483. Paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Giovanni Bellini decorate several interiors. The Bridge of Sighs has linked the palace with the prison since the sixteenth century. The Giants’ Staircase, built in 1485, carries Sansovino’s statues of Mars and Neptune, watching over Venice’s power on land and sea. Since 1923, the palace has presented art, historical objects and architectural fragments as a museum.

- City: [Venice](https://mytuur.com/en/city/venice/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_PalazzoDucale_68507932717a3e13abd51dae_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Doge's_Palace_Scala_dei_Giganti_BLS.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_PalazzoDucale_68507932717a3e13abd51dae_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MZK_001_Nr_09_Eine_Ansicht_des_Dogenpalastes_-_Fig._01_Ende_14._Jhdt.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_PalazzoDucale_68507932717a3e13abd51dae_2.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Doge's_Palace_Courtyard_BLS.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_PalazzoDucale_68507932717a3e13abd51dae_3.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:S03_06_01_027_image_3325.jpg)

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